


to boldly [hide]

by sunflowerabbit



Series: star trek au [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Star Trek AU, in another life we couldve had more of the elevator scene, jeffries tubes, warning: bonding moments, warning: excessive mention of mullets, warning: lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 01:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19307635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerabbit/pseuds/sunflowerabbit
Summary: It’s hard enough to hide from your superior when you’re all ON A STARSHIP IN THE MIDDLE OF SPACE, but now Lance has to deal with sharing a hiding spot with some guy with a tragically outdated hairstyle.Woe is me, Lance would say, Shakespearian tragedies have been written about me across the galaxies—whatever. There were probably worse ways to pass the time than thinking up new ways to poke at the guy’s mullet.-Lance and Keith share a cramped crawlspace while hiding from responsibilities.





	to boldly [hide]

**Author's Note:**

> i have like six other aus cooking up and whoppee my sole, dumb brain cell decided to shove another one in the oven, so have at it. tbh this came out a lil boring to me but all my work comes out a lil underwhelming so i hope u dont find it so lol
> 
> i fully admit that this is me highkey indulging myself and making use of my recurring obssession with star trek and my fixation on voltron...so heres the embarrassingly long primer that ur totally free to skip:
> 
> u don’t need to have watched any of the star trek installments to read this!!officers are divided into three general categories: command (gold; ppl who have to do with piloting + the captain), sciences (blue; ppl in medical, ppl in science-related research divisions), and operations (red; ppl in security, communications and engineering). people have different study backgrounds that can cross over/overlap between categories, but the color shirt u wear basically just represents what u mainly do on the ship. 
> 
> “jefferies tubes” are vertical/horizontal crawlspaces/tunnels in the starship that function as access to some systems, or means of travelling around the ship when the fancy elevators stop working.
> 
> xo- first officer/second highest position after the captain
> 
> and thats it—uhh happy reading haha

Lance tenses as his comm vibrates in his back pocket.

 _Thank fuck I put it on silent_ , he thinks, carefully putting a foot across the tunnel and steadying it on some unidentified gearbox before squirming to reach for his back pocket. A couple of officers stroll by below, their voices and laughter echoing up.

**Hunk: dude allura’s looking for u where are u**

Lance curses, nearly slipping and sliding down. He grabs onto some piping behind him to steady himself, squinting at the small screen as he types one-handed.

 **Lance: tell her im dead**  

 **Hunk: we’ve been through this before lance she WILL find u and when she does u WILL be dead so it’s better to come out willingly and suck it up before u do die and i have to send what’s left of u back to ur poor parents**  

**Hunk: OR i faint upon seeing ur mangled body and die of grief myself and then starfleet will have lost two good men instead of none and it’s all on u, buddy**

**Lance: aw u think i’m good at my job?**  

**Hunk: DONT SAY I DIDNT WARN U**

**Hunk: IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME**

**Hunk: ENJOY LIVING ON BORROWED TIME, LANCE**

Lance sighs exaggeratedly and rolls his eyes up to the ceiling—or rather, the endless stretch of tunnel above him.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Someone curses, too loud and too close, and Lance jumps and yelps as a hand accidentally knocks onto his shoe.

“What the—“ 

A guy squirms up, a hand nudging Lance’s foot as he scrabbles for purchase on the opposite side of the tube. He tosses his head back and tilts it up, flicking his bangs out of his eyes, and widens his eyes at Lance, hissing, “ _shhhhhh._ ”

On one hand, Lance can distantly appreciate the tousled hair and big, dark blue eyes. On the other— _Did he just_ shush _me?!_

Affronted, Lance starts to get ready to ream this dude out for shushing him _and_ getting all up in his personal space, but a chorus of voices echo up the tube and he dutifully falls silent. Although he does send Shaggy-Hair a glare, hand pressing his communicator to his chest.

The silence lasts about a minute or two after the footsteps and voices fade away. 

Then—

“The fuck you doing?” Lance hisses, dropping down the tunnel a little to look this guy directly in the eyes face-to-face so he can feel the _emphasis_.

“I could ask you the same thing,” The guy retorts, leaning back and making a face as Lance follows the action and leans in. Lance squints at him in the dim lighting.

“Well, I was here first, so get your own jefferies tube, mullethead.”

“This is the only one in Engineering with an entrance that isn’t in anyone’s line of sight,” The guy growls. “And—did you just call me _mullethead_?”

“What about it?”

“It’s not a mullet!”

“I hate to break it to ya, pal, but it’s a mullet,” Lance says. “You better get that checked out before they send you back to the 1980s.”

The guy opens his mouth, then closes it and just stares at him in disbelief.

“I—“ He starts, then shakes his head and grunts out, “Okay, whatever, man. Where does this lead?” He jerks his head up.

“If you keep climbing there should be a hatch that opens into one of the wards at medbay, I think,” Lance offers, eager to wallow and hide by himself again. “And a little bit up, it forks off into a—I forgot, some emergency switch thingy for the—yeah. Either way it’s a dead end, so you’re better off towards medbay.”

“ _Fuck_.” The guy curses vehemently enough that Lance leans as far back as he can, the piping and pointy-edged gearbox-things digging into his back uncomfortably.

“I’m guessing you’re the type of jefferies tube dweller that’s avoiding a check-up of some kind,” Lance says warily.

“I wonder what gave me away?” Mullethead says sarcastically. “Guess I’m stuck here.”

“Oh, no no no no. No.” Lance moans. “Find some other place to hide. I’m begging you.”

“I have nowhere else to go, so you can go if you want.” He says, planting his feet on some footholds on Lance’s side of the tube, leaning back, and crossing his arms. He glares sullenly. “Deal with it.”

Lance sighs exaggeratedly, feeling his comm vibrate in his hand again. He flips it open.

**Hunk: I’LL REMEMBER YOU IN THERAPY**

Lance can’t help the soft snort and a faint smile, typing back.

**Lance: we’ll be fine**

He snaps it shut and stuffs it back into his pocket. He chances a glance at Mullethead, who’s frowning and staring up listlessly.

Then he wonders if the name calling is too juvenile. Lance figures that resorting to physically hiding from your pissed off commanding officer instead of owning up is juvenile enough, so. . .he tries to browse other options aside from _Mullethead_. Which sounds like a band.

He lasts maybe five minutes of silence, but maybe it was actually just one. Or less. Lance never could get the hang of proper time estimation or whatever.

“So what’s your deal, dude?” Lance breaks, speaking in a hushed voice. “Just get it over with, c’mon.” 

The other guy shifts his gaze over to him. “Really? Do you know how long the CMO’s check-ups last?”

“Coran?” Lance makes a face. John Stamos: The Reckoning nods grimly. “Just go when he’s off shift.”

“It’s not—” He sighs, “I always have to get my check-ups done by the Chief Medical Officer.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Reasons,” He says, and Lance doesn’t miss the way he shifts uncomfortably.

“Okay, man,” Lance says casually, averting his stare.

“How about you?” Lance kind of blanks when the guy tries to talk to him. He clears his throat, “I mean, what are you in for?”

Lance blinks, then laughs, bringing up a hand to cover his mouth. Mullethead’s mouth twists into a deeper, self-conscious frown and Lance waves it off, feeling a little bad.

“Dude, no, it’s just—you make it sound like we’re in jail.”

The other guy cracks a small grin at that, to Lance’s surprise. “Aren’t we?”

Lance hums, still smiling a little, “Yeah, I’ve got bigger fish to fry than chatty doctors.” His expression drops into a serious, grim face as he leans forward. “The captain has it out for me.”

“Allura?” Mullethead asks. “What the hell did you do to piss Allura off?” 

Lance reddens, scowling, “Look, okay, it’s not my fault. Well, okay—it kinda is, but it was a genuine mistake, seriously!”

He sighs at Mullethead’s raised eyebrow.

“So I might have mixed up a word in the prep report I gave to the captain for her vid call with the Andorian ambassador for the really important negotiations thing we’re currently en route to. And it _may_ have offended the ambassador, and embarrassed Allura, and so she _may_ be after my head on a plate now.”

Mullethead blinks a couple of times before he actually bursts out laughing, slapping a hand over his mouth while his shoulders shake.

“Yeah, sure, laugh while my life is at stake!” Lance says defensively, although he’s trying not to laugh himself. “I’m so dead.”

“What did she say? To the ambassador.”

“Okay, so, look—the tricky thing with, uh, the specific Andorian dialect the ambassador was using—consonant pairs mean subject matter, so SH-P, means family members, and the last vowel or syllable, whatever, means the type. Like, _shapya_ means the head of house, blah blah blah. SH-D, is, uh—well, it’s something vulgar, not like, _super_ crude but still. Yeah. It’s similar enough, which is just bad planning if you ask me, but then again—English is a clusterfuck too so who am I to speak?” Lance says, trying not to hit his hand on sharp edges and piping as he gestures. He feels his cheeks heat up gradually as he rambles himself to freaking _rock bottom_ and beyond, and it only gets worse when he sees that Dark Billy Ray Cyrus is trying not to smile and failing. “Or, so I guess that doesn’t _really_ make it tricky,  and I’m just an idiot. I mix up words when writing sometimes. Whatever, okay, long story short—Allura ended up calling the Andorian ambassador’s family a bunch of bitches. Roughly.”

“That is so much worse than the medbay,” The second coming of 80s metal hairband members agrees, laughing. Lance, still feeling a little flushed, raises his shoulders, as if to say, _what’d I tell ya_?

They lapse back into silence, before Mullethead breaks it, surprising Lance yet again.

“So am I gonna have to keep calling you Angry Man in my head, or. . .?”

“I don’t know, I’m okay with calling you Mullethead in mine,” Lance jokes, smirking when he huffs and rolls his eyes. “The name’s Lance.”

“Keith,” Mullethead offers, holding out a hand. Lance stares at it for a beat and grips it loosely in a handshake. He nods at Lance’s shirt, “What division—uh, communications? I’m guessing from your story.”

“Yeah,” Lance nods, eyeing Keith’s gold colored shirt. “I’m the comms officer on delta shift, bridge crew. Command?”

“Yeah, I’m on bridge crew too, alpha shift. I, uh, I man the helm.”

Lance narrows his eyes at him for a moment, mouth pursed. “Wait—wait, _holy cr_ —Keith?”

“Yeah?” Keith says, looking mildly alarmed.

“No, no, I meant that like, Keith? Like—I mean I know you.” Lance’s head is slightly reeling as images of his first year at the Academy flash by. _No one_ likes being reminded of their embarrassing pasts, and Lance was _exceptionally_ embarrassing. “Oh God, we were partners on the flight sim in the intro class to piloting.”

“Wait, what?” Keith leans forward into Lance’s space, as Lance tries not to snap at him to maybe not, since he’s remembering that dark-haired kid he tried to hit on during the first run on the simulator. “Really? Wait.”

“I was shorter, a little,” Lance says, as Keith narrows his eyes and stares at his face a little too intensely. Lance can feel himself beginning to sweat under his scrutiny. “Like, maybe an inch or two—“ 

“Wait, oh, you were—“ Keith vaguely gestures somewhere near the bottom part of his ribs, “this high—“

“ _An inch or two!_ ”

“And Iverson said—“ Keith breaks off awkwardly, wincing. “Ah, yeah. I remember.”

“Yeah, _haha_ , the infamous ‘cargo pilot’ lecture,” Lance spreads his jazz hands out, yelping as his foot slides a little and he loses his balance. He scrambles for purchase on the walls while Keith grabs at his arm and helps him steady.

“Iverson was a dick, though,” Keith offers.

“It’s fine,” Lance waves it off, “I’d be more pissed about it if we were still teenagers, but we’re supposed to be mature and all that. And it’s been, what, four years? Five? Water under the bridge, dude. I am a paragon of maturity.”

“I could really tell,” Keith says dryly, mouth crooking. Lance’s eyes drop down for a second before darting back up, hoping Keith hadn’t noticed that. “With the way you told me to get lost the second I climbed up in here.”

“Self-preservation,” Lance defends. “Gotta look out for myself, man, have you ever seen Captain Allura pissed?”

“Unfortunately, yes, I’ve pissed her off a couple times.”

“Got any tips?”

“Well, I haven’t messed up that bad yet, mostly it was me and reckless maneuvers or some shit. I’ve never embarrassed her in front of ambassadors before.”

Lance groans. Keith huffs a laugh, adding, “But I’ve given the XO shit on away missions plenty.”

“Commander Shirogane?” Lance asks disbelievingly. “Dude, he’s the nicest guy ever. What the hell.” 

Keith snorts, “Yeah, no, Shiro was my only friend at the Academy while he was still an instructor. I’ve seen him done some shit, you know he accidentally betrothed himself to an Arusian warrior on the last away mission?”

“Wait, that was real?” Lance can’t help his voice rising, reeling it back in and hunching in on himself. His voice comes out more hushed, “That was real? I thought it was gossip.” 

“Yeah, he’s a two timer now. His boyfriend died laughing when he found out.”

“Wait, the commander has a _boyfriend_?”

—-

The tunnel doesn’t get any less cramped or uncomfortable, but the space is a little more bearable with someone to talk to, admittedly. Lance will never say this to Keith.

“I used to just be this little shit in a small town in Texas, until Shiro—who was still a Lieutenant at the time—caught me breaking into the sample simulator they’d set up for recruiting, drunk, and gave me an extra seat at the cadet shuttle to the Academy. I thought he was insane.”

“Well, if you could operate that thing drunk, he probably thought he was onto something.”

“That was after I managed to coincidentally steal his hoverbike from the bar to get to the simulator.”

“Dude.” Lance scoffs. “You did not.”

“I did.” 

“You’re shitting me,” Lance says, disbelievingly. “There is _no way_. Absolutely no way—“

——

“Yeah, well, top this,” Lance cracks his neck, “The night before we set out into space, I was at a bar, and I accidentally ended up hitting on the captain. Before I knew she was the captain. And _before you say anything_ , I was drunk. And I forgot her face—I didn’t know it was possible, but yeah—so I kinda didn’t recognize her from the whole, uh, Zarkon fiasco.”

“ _You_ —“ Keith appears to choke on air, “Allura? Did she hand you your ass on a platter?”

“She did,” Lance says without any modicum of shame. None whatsoever. Really. “She called me a dumb hick and said I had the most hideous ears she’d ever laid eyes upon.”

“Oh my God,” Keith says, wheezing. 

“Imagine walking off the transporter and coming face to face with the lady you had a drunk bar fight over your ears’ honor, and she was the captain _and_ the golden girl of the Coalition. I couldn’t look her in the eyes for weeks.”

Lance thinks that maybe their laughter may alert the authorities to their little hiding spot, but they keep laughing anyway.

—-

Lance is in the middle of explaining how he first met Hunk on the shuttle ride to San Francisco, about how Hunk had gone on a 30-minute tangent on everything that could go wrong with a starship’s engines before scaring himself into throwing up, when—

“Ah, the Hunk’a Hunk’a burnin’ love himself,” Lance says, whipping his comm out of his pocket and checking the text.

**Hunk: allura bribed pidge into tapping onto your comm’s signal so u can come out now. i can’t believe U WERE HIDING IN MY ENGINEERING BAY THE WHOLE TIME**

“Ah, shit.”

“What?” Keith says.

“They’ve found me,” Lance says grimly.

“Lance!” Allura’s voice echoes up the jefferies tube, loud and commanding. Although Lance knows he’s not in super deep shit because Allura’s still using his first name while they’re off duty instead of ‘Lieutenant McClain’, it’s still a little frightening. “Come quietly and there will be no bloodshed today.”

“I’m a linguist!” Lance yells down. “I see that fucking loophole, Allura, don’t test me! There will be no bloodshed _period_.”

“Lance I will reach in there and drag you out myself!”

Lance almost makes to climb up to medbay and make a run for it, but Allura cuts in.

“Don’t even think about it! I have Coran and half of the medical staff on guard!”

Keith lets go of the piping he was using to pull himself up and looks down. “Well, my chances are better down there.”

“It was a good run,” Lance grumbles, fumbling his way down.

“Could’ve made it if we ditched the comms,” Keith comments, following behind Lance.

“Pidge is a traitor.” Lance says, and says it again for good measure when he’s planting his feet back on solid ground and extracting his head to find the kid , that _little nerd_ , standing right there with a tablet. “You’re a traitor.” 

“A traitor with half a month’s worth of dessert rations,” Pidge says gleefully. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you some. If there’s anything left of you once the Captain’s through with you.” 

“Can everyone stop acting like I’m going to flay you alive or—or bring you into the brig for torture!” Allura exclaims, crossing her arms. “Am I truly that frightening?”

“Yes,” Lance says flatly, as Keith comes out after him.

“Keith?” Allura asks, bewildered, “What exactly were you doing up there?”

“Just, uh, chilling,” Keith tries. Allura stares. Lance tries not to snort.

“He’s hiding from Coran,” Pidge says, reading something from her tablet. “Doc says you’ve been avoiding a check-up and asked me to track your comm too. Two birds with one stone,” she crows.

“Sold for one corn chip,” Keith sighs, and Lance blurts out a laugh.

“More than one, but essentially, yes,” Pidge says, adjusting her glasses. Lance swears he sees them gleam under the lights.

“Better head to medical, Lieutenant Kogane,” Allura says, although she’s still glancing between Lance and Keith like she’s trying to figure something out. “Lance, I’ll be sure to kill you if it happens again, but I need you to translate some documents and help me prepare for the conference now.”

“Sure thing, princess,” Lance says easily.

Allura turns and Pidge moves to follow her, but Lance lingers for a bit, running through a dozen conversation scripts in his head and simultaneously coming up with nothing, really, as Keith turns and smiles awkwardly. Lance thinks it’s a little unfair to look that cute, especially now that he’s seeing Keith under normal lighting conditions.

“Uh,” Keith says, then clears his throat, “It was nice. The bonding moments, I mean. Not the uncomfortable space and the heat and stuff.”

“Bonding moments? What bonding moments?” Lance jokes, grinning when Keith huffs a laugh and rolls his eyes. “I don’t remember any of that.”

“Whatever you say, man,” Keith says. 

There’s a silence after that, and it’s kinda awkward, and Lance kinda wants to break it because silence is _loud_ and _weird_ and makes him want to yell—but his stomach decides to squirm all fluttery and go like, “ _how about_ no” so he keeps his mouth shut.

“Maybe we could. . .” Keith starts to say, all mumbly and quiet, then clears his throat and shrugs, “Uh, see you around?”

Lance sucks in his lips, trying not to look disappointed, “Um, yeah, see ya!”

Keith nods, still smiling faintly, and Lance claps him on the shoulder and shoots him a grin and some finger guns before jogging to catch up to Allura and Pidge.

 _Why did I do the finger guns_ ? He thinks furiously as he walks. _Why did I_ do _that?!_

“So,” Pidge says, powering off her tablet, “Keith, eh?”

“Shut,” Lance mumbles.

“He is the alpha shift helmsman,” Allura offers, her eyes twinkling and her fancy purple earrings swishing as she turns her head. Lance thinks there was some _smugness_ going on with her swishy earrings and gleaming eyes. Or something. “Your divisions are separate, and you are not within each other’s direct chain of command, so if you were to. . .engage in romantic entanglement, perhaps. . .it would be completely fine—”

“Wha—I _know_ he’s a helmsman, a—you—I—there will be no entangling!” Lance sputters indignantly. “Of any kind! Quit it!”

Allura raises an eyebrow, and Pidge snickers, muttering something about nobody following the relationship regulations anyway. 

“Is this a starship or a high school?” Lance huffs, crossing his arms and walking briskly past them, pretending not to hear their snickering, “ _Geez_.”

His arms loosen enough that he’s just hugging himself after a minute, staring at the floor as he walks. He grudgingly makes a mental note to ask Pidge, _subtly_ , when Keith’s breaks are so he can “coincidentally” run into him at the mess hall. Once she’s done being a little shit.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i have a ton of small ideas for this as a verse, and a couple of big multi-chaptered ones that butcher and make some unholy frankenstein monster out of star trek reboot movie canon and voltron canon, so, uh. stay tuned?
> 
> thank you for reading!!! comment and/or leave a kudos if you liked it, haha. 
> 
> hmu on tumblr if u wanna chat about it or whatever—@sunflowercaptain


End file.
